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Bolio’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 344 05 February 2014 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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My Spanish vocabulary may consist of 200 words. I have the ability to order food in a restaurant and not much more. My wife was born in Mexico and speaks Spanish to her family and speaks it to a few friends of ours.
I want to go from understanding the "Jist" of their conversations to making myself understood and then one day really speaking and thinking in Spanish. My goal is to develop my Spanish to the point where I could live in a Spanish speaking country without ever speaking a word of English. In addition, I would like to be able to take on clients who are Spanish speakers only (I understand that these are long term goals). I will do an Assimil Spanish course every day. Also, I have just started using ANKI and really enjoy it! I will also speak to my wife or friends every day in Spanish...even if it is nothing more than simple greetings. After completing Assimil, I may look at doing the L-R method. My focus now will be completing the Assimil and doing Anki every day I look forward to the journey that I should have taken years ago. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 344 06 February 2014 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Day one: Completed the first lesson of Assimil. Also spent 30 minutes with ANKI deck. I currently have two decks. One deck has pictures and the other is a traditional flash card with the word or sentence in English and then the Spanish Translation. The images stick with me a little better. Both are enjoyable and I look forward to spending time with it every day.
I also spent the evening with some friends from Querétaro, Mexico. I spent most of the night picking out familiar words and adding a few comments when I was asked simple questions. It was nice and we always enjoy their company. Today is a new day! Edited by BOLIO on 06 February 2014 at 3:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 344 10 February 2014 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I really enjoy my time with Anki. It stresses me in a good way. The amount of words in some of the sentences seems to be too much for me understand. However, after a while it makes sense.
Assimil is Assimil. It neither excites me nor bores me. I feel like it will be helpful and enjoy the audio. I do wish it were in Latin American Spanish. The "Spain"ish accent sounds like someone has a LISP. "Ehh-Hare-Thee-Thee-ohhss" for ejercicios. Over the weekend I was not feeling well. I stayed around the house and was able to put in several hours of language work that I would not normally be able to do. It was quiet and productive. I went to a used book store and was able to add some materials to my learning library. I found two grammar books and one book I felt was interesting but don't know how it will work. One grammar book is a beginner level and I will get much use out of it now. It is not too advanced and I can keep up with it. The second book is "Intermediate" in its title but it might as well be in ancient Egyptian. It is way too advanced for me now but will be nice to have for the future. The third book is for watching movies. One of my favorite movies is the Princess' Bride. The book follows the movie scene for scene and has some of the key words from the dialogue in Spanish. Finding the movie in Spanish will be easy to do. There are 8 or 9 different movies in the book. I don't know how much I will "Learn" from it, but it will be fun. I know I have not said it enough...thanks for all the contributors to this site. It is an invaluable resource in a world full of wasted internet space. I have told three people this week about it. Two are Spanish students and one is an accomplished language learner who speaks English (Native), Russian, French and Spanish. She was so excited to hear about a place where others were excited about learning languages. Many of our mutual friends have no idea that this 70+ year old African American female can speak more than one language. They know she is highly educated but have no idea that she can comfortably communicate in these other languages. Our area is blessed with many different people from many different parts of the world. When my friends see her strike up a conversation with someone from Russia or France or a local who speaks Spanish, their jaws drop to the floor. She has a gift for learning but she is emphatic that hard work is every bit as important as having a "Gift". This is where I am in the language learning department. I have NO gift. I am a terrible student. However, I can put in consistent effort and that will take me as far as I can go. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7239 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 4 of 344 10 February 2014 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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How do you get the gist with 200 words? That's a skill I would like.
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| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 344 10 February 2014 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I were to write them all down, It might be much higher than 200. I don't know how many but my point is that my vocabulary is very much lacking.
As far as the "Gist", if the subject matter is very simple or food related I can get more than the gist and can participate in the conversation. If it is a serious conversation for example, a news item or professional in nature, then I am lost and spend all of my time trying to pick out familiar words and TRY to connect the dots of the conversation. I will tell my wife what I think they are saying and she will correct me or say that I am on the right track and she will fill in the gaps. You have many languages as study languages in your profile. How are you able to study so many? What level of proficiency do you reach before moving on, or do you spend even amounts of time with each of them? What level of vocabulary would make a person conversational? 3500, 5000, 10,000? I have a goal of 5000 words but I think it may be very low. Thanks for the help. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7239 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 6 of 344 10 February 2014 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, the quick answer is that I'm crazy. The other thing you will notice is that many of those are marked "intermediate" and what that means for me is that there's nothing really left to "study", I just have to use native materials/people. If someone says something twice (or slow it down) I usually get it. I was wondering recently how much my Spanish has faded because I haven't really used it in 3 or 4 years (I moved) but I recently came across something written in Spanish only and it seemed like an old friend there to greet me. It's there lurking and it would probably only take a few days to get back where I was. I think if I can read a novel (looking some things up) then it's really not going to go away. For me, being conversational is more about being able to understand the words that people are saying to me than the size of my vocabulary. I already know the words. That's why I was so interested to know how you do so well with a small vocab. It seems like it would be possible. Having said that, in my opinion, it seems impossible to get anything done without less than 1000 words and at 5,000 I think you can pick out the words you don't know and ask about it without it getting in the way (especially if you've got a bilingual friend). Reading a novel would be something closer to 20,000. There's also a few tricks for English to Spanish, like and English word ending in "-ity" probably exists in Spanish with the ending "-idad". Edited by ElComadreja on 10 February 2014 at 8:45pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 344 10 February 2014 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read your log and I think I better understand your situation. You are where I want to be.
After thinking about it, my word count must be much higher when you factor in all the English words that end in -tion, -able, etc. I have three ANKI decks I work with. 1) Is easier in the sense that it is one word in English, ie. HOUSE/CASA. 2) The second one is very nice because it is a photo, for example of a puppy. The flip side would be "Cachorro". 3) The third is made up of sentences and it is not easy for me. As a matter of fact it can be overwhelming but I am making progress. It may say, "Step up and you will see better" / "acerquense y podrán ver mejor". I knew the word for approach to be "acercarse" but have no idea what to do with it in a sentence. I knew the word "mejor". But to put these things together in a sentence is waaaaayyyyy beyond me. But I do like it. I like the process but the more I study, the greater my awareness of what I do not know!!! As always, thanks for any imput. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7239 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 8 of 344 11 February 2014 at 3:15am | IP Logged | ||
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For knowing how to put the words together, I would recommend the first 8 lessons of
pimsleur, or the substitution drills of FSI. It takes a sentence that you memorized, gives you a different word, and you have to put it in that sentence correctly. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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